Mass Effect: A Youth Trial
by SilverThanatos
Summary: A few years after the Reaper War, the council needs a new way to recruit Spectres due to their old way not recruiting new forces fast enough. So a new task force is formed to trained promising young recruits by Spectre Vakarian and under the supervision of Admiral Shepard. First fanfic, expect alot of OCs as this is centered around them. There will be a bit of romance among them.
1. Meeting

Notes

Story takes place one year after the Reaper War, also for the sake of the story the War took 2 for it to end.

Im going to disregard the ending of how Mass Effect 3 ended, in this world Shepard is alive. Reapers are gone, but no synthetics are dead and the Mass Relays weren't blown to and Quarians live peacefully, Batarians are rebuilding themselves as well as reinventing themselves, and the genophage has been cured

This story will focus around OCs with a sprinkle of appearances of actual characters.

Just a note on where characters like wrex and major crewmembers are at, not doing all right here but just the ones who appear in the beginning. Others will appear later on but they will appear in later chapters.

Shepard: Alive and married, or bonded, to Tali with a child on the way; hey this is fanfiction, let me have my Quarian-Human hybrid baby, and is now a Rear Admiral, has retired from the spectres

Garrus: A spectre now, and is apart of a special training program and task force, which will be the focus of this story; not Garrus but the people he is in charge of.

Tali: Now the ambassador for the Quarian people, has a nice little office on the newly rebuilt Citadel and no longer wears the helmet, although she still keeps the suit and is with child.

Liara: Now a professor at a university on Thessia, she is also an advisor of sorts for Garrus on this task force.

Since we don't know a lot about alien teenaged or adult physiology in mass effect, their looks will be as follows. Other species, will be introduced but the ones that appear below, along with the human male are the only ones I have fleshed out

The Turian character, who is female, will simply appear as a smaller female Turian with smaller claws.

The Krogan, who will be in his 40s but since they live for a thousand years I'm placing this age to the equivalent of 18. To show that he is younger, he will have a less prominent hump that Krogan males have and will also not be as bulky as an adult would be.

The Salarian, who will be 14, will be smaller both in height and in the horns he has.

The Asari, also late 30s early 40s, since they are close to looking like humans I don't really need to go into detail into how an Asari teen should or would look like.

As for the Quarian, I won't go into detail as to how she looks now

Please be kind when reviewing this, its my first fanfic so if all you have to say is that it sucks then please keep your opinions to yourself unless you explain why and give a valid reason, as for positive comments, it would be helpful if I was informed on what I'm doing right. if you like the story, please give it a like it give me a follow so you can read more. Well onto the story now, enjoy.

Chapter 1: Made not born

Three years, three relatively peaceful years since the end of the Reaper War, there was a still some isolated pockets of cerberus forces but the galaxy was certainly never the same since then because of the universe shattering, two conflict. To this day, know one ever fully understood how Commander Shepard, or Rear Admiral Jason M. Shepard as he is now known in Alliance Navy, stopped the reaper threat but the God-like synthetics were disintegrated by the catalyst with no harmful effect on the civilizations and thats all they needed to hear. As a reward for all that he had done, he was promoted to his current rank and was now leading the new and improved Alliance 2nd fleet, made up of not only several dreadnoughts and cruisers is had 3 new stealth, or "Normandy" class as many preferred to call it and heading the fleet was the SSV London, a dreadnought class starship and on this ship was a meeting that was drawing a lot of controversy from all around

Attending this meeting was Rear Admiral Shepard, Spectre Garrus Vakarian, the council; which now included Krogan and Quarian as a reward to their contributions in the war, another event that drew criticism but eventually went away due to how effectively the much larger council handled things as compared to the past. The topic at hand was no different, it was one that drew both criticism and favor, needless to say that this was a serious discussion, one that would ultimately decide how recruitment for Spectres are handled, something that was often debated even before humanity's discovery of the Mass Relays. The topic was once again brought up after the Spectre forces were significantly dwindled by the reapers, there had to be some consistent way to bulk up the Council's first and last line of defense.

"So we all know why we're here, to decided whether or not we should begin a Spectre training program with these potential recruits." Shepard started off the discussion by having six files passed around to those in attendance. "Lets please keep an open mind to this idea and not immediately shoot it down." He looked pointedly to the Turian council member.

"I'm sorry Admiral Shepard, but I just do not believe this program should be made, I see no reason why our old method of selecting spectres should be tossed out the window.

"Need I remind Councillor Spartarus that this program was form as an emergency action to rebuild spectre forces. As of now, only myself, Williams, Shepard; who may as well be retired with him heading the 2nd fleet, and 20 others make up all council spectres and we just cant afford to have such low numbers." Garrus stated calmly as his chin rested in the palm of one of his talons "Besides, we're simply suggesting trial run, if it doesnt work out we just end the program no problem, although I don't see why we would."

"I agree there is no reason we shouldn't take this this suggestion seriously." The Quarian councilor, Kal'Jinor, chimed in as his eyes appeared to be reading the files given to him. "All these recruits have done deeds that would get anyone in the spectres the only reason they aren't is because of their age and experience but thats the whole reason for this program, to give them that experience."

"I concur with the Quarian, this is a good program that can only strengthen the spectres." The Krogan councillor, Illya of clan Jakara, stated in her deep yet feminine voice. "I see no reason they shouldn't be given a chance."

"Of course it helps that the two newest species to the council would also be getting their own Spectres." The councillor Tevos stated rather calmly as she stared at the pair she was referring to. "But I can't help but agree with their reasons, but I can't accept how young these children are."

"They have done deeds worthy of spectres, but most of them are not of adult age in their respective societies." Councilor Valern stated in that calculating tone that all his kind seemed to use "however I agree with Tevos and Sparatus, I see no viable reason to go through with this program. Anything you'd like to add Councilor Anderson?"

"Well I think we should let their deeds speak for themselves, they can certainly handle themselves and the armed forces of their respective races isn't making full use of their abilities. I think that the program should be approved no matter their age." Anderson spoke in his usual understanding yet authoritative tone as he looked around at his fellow councilors. "Why don't we go over them shall we?"

In the mess hall of the SSV London

In the mess hall of the same ship of the meeting were the recruits that the councilors spoke of, six in total; one from each council species. Each young man and woman, the eldest being a 43 year old Krogan and the youngest being a 14 year old Salarian, had done actions that gave them the respect of those in their species armed forces and governments. It was because of them that this program was being considered, these people were considered to be spectres and yet these same people were sitting in awkward silence, seats apart from one another not sure what to do in this situation.

Refusing to sit in silence for any longer the Krogan, Urdnot Keng, spoke first. "So what did you pyjaks did to get accepted into this group?" The young Krogan, or young at least by their standards seeing as how chronologically he was the eldest but one would still see him as young krogan regardless of species. Due to his less prominent hump, smaller in both height and muscle mass, and his voice wasnt as deep as adults. He certainly looked like any other Krogan from clan Urdnot, excluding Urdnot Grunt, with the red "crown", green-gray face and serpent red eyes

"Shouldn't you be the on to tell us first since you so gracefully brought the subject up?" The Asari, Avine T'nara, another child in her society's eyes; although she is only 38, she certainly to look like a late teen or a young adult, had skin devoid of any markings unlike some asari and instead had skin of a deep shade of blue like an ocean with eyes to match.

"Thought we were saving the best for last," This cause the Turian to snort in disbelief "anyway basically back when the reapers were on Tuchanka, they were abducting Krogan turning them into the Brutes along with the Turians, you know giant things that could rip a tank apart? There was this large group of them in some ruins on the eastern hemisphere, lounging around and I was apart as a scouting party as a shadow, you know to learn from them, they decided to engage and were easily overruned . Without hesitation I pulled out a shotgun and took all four of those Brutes by myself, but then that drew some attention. All of sudden we were swarmed by a husks and ravagers, the remaining men decided to lead them to a chokepoint, took 'em to a thin alleyway or sumthin' like that, there was only enough room for one of us, it too narrow and not enough cover so we all had to go in single file line cause of that, and I volunteered." He scanned the group to see if they were still paying attention. "No time to argue, so they just gave me all their ammo and grenades before leaving and boy was it perfect."

"The spread of my claymore ripped through three husks at a time, the ravagers didnt stand any better chance, just shot their sacks and stepped on all the the little bugs that came out. By the time reinforcements came it was already sundown and the dead were just piled up. Turns out those forces were planning to attack several settlements nearby and I wiped out about a third of them easily." He said with a proud smile, no hint of exaggeration or falsehood in his story. "Urdnot Wrex was pleased with what I did, put me in Aralakh as a reward that is until the hero Shepard came and told him about this program that he and that Turian Spectre, Garrus of something, were trying to start up and here I am. So what about you Asari, or how about you Salarian?"

"My name is Jondem Talom." The Salarian said matter-of-factly as he folded his arms across his chest, the gray skinned alien spoke in a much higher pitched voice than most of his fellow species, signalling just how young he was. "unfortunately I cannot tell you what I did to get into this program, STG related. The mission details are locked down and won't be released for the public to examine for another 200 years."

"Well you're no fun Jondem." Surprising everyone was the Quarian, who was 15 making her the second youngest, with her playful and teasing tone. "Whats the point of having a cool story if you don't plan on sharing it?"

"That is irrelevant," Jondem countered "what occurred on my mission is not suppose to be revealed regardless of who is and whether or not its a 'cool story.' although I'm sure your story would be much more more interesting Ms?"

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Vala'Jinah nar Rannoch, just call me Val." She said in a surprisingly cheery tone as the masked Quarian had her hands resting on her lap as her elongated legs swung lazily in her chair. "And sure, Ill share my story, its pretty simple though. Back when we still lived on the Flotilla I was stationed on the Triton, the only human-made ship in our flotilla, it was one of those combat cruisers that probably dated before the First Contact War, it was a beautiful ship nonetheless and worked like a dream it had twin guns in th-"

"Are you gonna tell us about your story or tell us about the old ships in your flotilla?' The Turian snapped with unusual bitterness, mostly due to the fact that apparently humans weren't the only ones who referred to the Relay 314 Incident as the First Contact War.

"Oh, sorry. Anyway, I was engineer in the engine room during our takeback of Rannoch, all of sudden we lost our stabilizers and were falling to the planet surface. I was only to tweak the engines so we landed with a safe impact, surprisingly the ship came out mostly unscathed." She pulled out his omni-tool and displayed a holographic map that was no doubt Rannoch, apparently she felt the need to use visuals. "So this big red marking represents the Triton, were thought we were several miles from some geth outposts so the Marines went up north to scout for defensive positions, leaving us engineers with some weapons to defend any civilians just in case."

"Unfortunately we were wrong about the outpost position and they came at us from the south." Several black dots appeared on the map coming from the south, and a line of green dots appeared in front of the Triton. "So me and the engineers took positions, fortunately we had basic combat training but we didn't have any chain of command, our head engineer had died on impact, he was our only casualty in the collision, so I took the lead, the other engineers didn't care so long as we had some type of organization. Now I'm not much of a leader, but I was able to pick out good defensive positions throughout those rocky fields." She took a small breath before continuing. "So nothing really eventful happened saved for that over fifty geth swarmed us, yet 10 engineers and several combat and defense drones were to hold the line. The others swore up and down that if it wasn't for me everyone on the Triton would be, especially since apparently I took out most of the geth with that handy Reeger carbine. Several months later here I am." She appeared to be smiling under her violet tinted faceplate. "Who's next?" She turned to the remaining people who had yet to told their story.

"I have to say, thats impressive," The turian woman said with his arms folded across his chest. "I guess anything is possible, well the names Caron Bilkas and I guess its my turn. Mines pretty simple, I was apart of a Militia, specifically I was apart of a sniper unit that was in charge of covering the retreat of civilians from Reaper forces. I was the best, and also the youngest in said unit at 14, 16 now, and one day we were up in some apartment complexes watching for any stragglers. Out of nowhere several Harvesters comes down and drops some Marauders on us; apparently our efforts were significantly messing were them turning our people into their little foot soldiers and were trying to take us out of the picture."

"The guys dealt with the ground forces, while I tried to deal with the the Harvesters, it was heading towards one of the few safe zones we had in place and I chased after it by jumping from from rooftop to rooftop." She didn't appear to be as enthusiastic as the previous storytellers before her, however she continued to tell it with slight pride in her voice. "Now obviously I wasn't going to catch up with them so I stopped, steadied my line of sight and aimed for their weak spots, and in rapid succession I was able to bring 5 harvesters down and the Hierarchy said that if wasn't for my unit, especially me, that no doubt several thousands people would've been turned to indoctrinated slaves or dead. Now here I am, like the rest of you, hoping that we become apart of the Spectres. What about you Asari, tell us your story?" Caron motioned to blue skinned Alien sitting across from her.

"The names Avine Turian," She said in a tone of obvious disdain. "and fine, Ill tell you my story. I was on Thessia when the reapers hit, and like all of you I was able to defend my home planet, protect some safe zones like you Caron, only my defense was more head on. We used the rubble of an old skyscraper as the "border" between the safe zone and the reapers, now keep in mind that one Thessian skyscraper is twice the size than anything the humans have."

"Why humans?" Vala asked with curiosity.

"Because human built skyscrapers in periods earlier than any other council in terms of where they were as a people at the time, and they turned out a lot larger and taller than one would expect." Avine explained with, a bit miffed that someone had interrupted her. "Anyway, me and a group of militia were just beyond the skyscraper, were the first line of defense and throughout the entire siege Thessia not one reaper soldier got through us, and throughout that entire time I was leading them, like I said it was a militia so we didn't have a formal chain of command and they didn't really care that I was in charge. It was my leadership skills that got me noticed and into this program so I wouldn't be surprised if I was made the leader, no offense to you Vala."

"None taken." She said with unusually cheery tone, apparently this was the norm for her to be always upbeat.

"So now that we're all done sharing why don't we talk about something else?" Caron said, trying to change the conversation as she shifted in her seat.

"Hey wait," Keng interrupted, looking around the group of aliens "Theres suppose to be six of us, one from each council race, wheres the human?" Not that he particularly cared for humans, let alone this one in general which he hardly knew, he wanted to know two things. What a young adult human looked like; as tough as Keng is he always was a curious one, and two, just what did a young human have to do to become a possible candidates for the spectres. Humans always came across as soft to him, except for the Hero Shepard of course, but its hard to believe such a great man came from a bunch of soft skinned aliens.

"You guys didn't notice?" Jondem stated as he looked around the group, apparently they didn't. "He is right over there." The Salarian pointed to the far end of the mess hell, there sat a black haired young man with his back facing the group as he stared out the window to watch the stars pass by. "Honestly it seems a bit rude you didn't notice him earlier."

"Why didn't you point him out earlier?" Avine asked with a slight annoyance in her voice,

"I assumed you knew, and it seemed rude to call him out for no reason." He replied.

"I don't think he can hear us." Vala said a bit nervously as she bunched up her hands.

"It seems a bit awkward to try and talk to him now." Caron stated.

At that moment Rear Admiral Shepard walked in, causing the young adults to stand at attention and salute him, all except for the human who didn't appear to notice anyone come in. At that moment the bright blue eyes of the legend surveyed the group and notice that someone was missing. "Wheres Jason?" He asked with curiosity before Jondem point to the black haired young man. Shepard walked over to the boy and patted his shoulder as the group watched curiously and to their surprise it turned out that their mysterious companion was asleep

"Are you shitting me? That guy was asleep and the rest of us here are nervous as hell." Avine muttered to no one in particular as she stared incredulously at what just unfolded, albeit it was that spectacular.

"That human is gutsy, Ill give him that." Keng said in a deep guttural whispered as he sized up the younger human who was now standing up. Before them was a scruffy black haired young man with tired brown eyes in a casual Alliance uniform. He was skinny and tall, but he still had some muscles but didn't exactly look like a soldier.

He appeared to have exchanged a few words with Shepard before the two of them walked over to the group. Scratching his head as he spoke. "So...names Jason, and from what Shepard and I guess Ill be with you guys from now on...assuming the program is approved, has it been Admiral Shepard?" He asked as he appeared to be slowly waking up.

"Well thats where we're going to find out, the council would like to meet with all six of you one last time before making a final decision." With that, Shepard led them out of the Mess Hall and to the meeting room where hopefully they would be on their first step to becoming spectres.

_

Hoped you guys enjoyed reading that, its a long one I know and hopefully I can get more chapters out sometime in the near future. Please be kind with your reviews as this is my first fanfiction. If you got any ideas, comments of criticisms please leave them in the review, and if you like the story give a fave and a follow. Thats all for now and I hope to entertain you guys again.


	2. Approval

In a Meeting Room of the SSV London

To say the council were a group of figures that could probably cause the most seasoned politician to nervous was a huge understatement. They were always viewed as a powerful force, even with the additions of Humans, Krogan, and Quarians, when one would think of them, the image that would come to mind was them standing in the chambers looking down on those who were granted an audience with them. No one could possibly imagine them sitting around a table, chatting idly with coffee and donuts. one of the few human foods that almost all of the species enjoyed, as they awaited to meet with some teens and young adults who were possible candidates for the Spectres.

Each of one of the candidates had met with their species councillor previously, this was the first time ever saw the complete council and while most were unexpectedly surprised by the scene. Jason, the oldest out of the group of recruits in terms of his standing in Human society, was off to the side stirring some milk and cream into a cup of coffee while he munched quietly on a donut. This cause Shepard to clear his throat, catching Jasons attention and reminding him where he was and he quickly got back with others, sipping his coffee nonchalantly all the while.

"Idiot…" Avine, the Asari muttered in a low tone that while most people couldn't hear, Jason however picked up her word and turned to stare at her from the corner of his eye , Avine stared back with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment before both turned away from each other, all the while Shepard introduced the group.

"Councilors, I'm sure you already know the names of these fine young men and women and personally gotten to know the candidate from your respective race but I think its only fitting they introduced themselves." Shepard said before motioning his arm, as if to present the potential recruits. "They will introduce themselves and then each councillor will comment the recruit and then decide whether or not the recruit is ready for the program, all recruits have to be deemed ready in order for the program to be approved." He then stepped aside, giving the floor to said recruits. There was a brief awkward silence since no one knew who to start off first, finally Jondem let out spoke up.

"As I'm sure you already know, I am Jondem Talom, one of the youngest STG field agents, I thank you for giving me this opportunity and I hope my accomplishments are satisfactory to your needs." The amphibious alien as his arms across his chest as he spoke eloquently. "I understand your concerns with letting someone my age become a potential spectre, but I've done things that other, and older, Salarian Spectres had difficulty doing or have never done before. That is all I have to say and I hope you take my candidacy seriously." He gave a slight nod, signalling he was done and awaited for the councils judgment and comments.

"I have to Jondem, your achievements are quite remarkable." Illya, the Krogan councillor spoke up first. "Youve done deeds that not even the best of our warriors could accomplish, I'm sure you don't mind us sharing these in front of your fellow recruits, but diverting reapers from being able to turn your people into their soldiers. Being apart in the takedown several Destroyer class reapers with your unit, not to mention being able to keep the reaper forces away from multiple Sur'Kesh labs and cities."

Jondem was about to protest that locked down information was revealed, but was quickly interrupted "Do not worry Jondem, how you accomplished these feats will be revealed." Councillor Valern said in a reassuring tone before continuing with his own comments. "While I do not fully agree with this program, I do however believe you are Spectre material and see no reason you should not be given a chance to prove your worth." He turned and looked to the rest of the councils of have yet to speak. "Any other words you'd all like to add?"

"None at all." Sparatus said while the rest shook their heads.

"I think we are in agreement that Jondem is ready for training." Tevos said and the rest unanimously agreed. "Congratulations, lets hope the rest are ready as well." Jondem quietly thanked them and stepped off to the side. Apparently following his stride, Keng stepped up, the young Krogan staring down the council before addressing them.

"My name is Urdnot Keng, and as many of you know I singlehandedly held off reaper forces, diverting them from civilians and taking up a position that older, more experienced Krogan didn't have the nerve to take." Keng had taken on the same tone he used when he first told his story, full of pride. "I know that most of you, particularly the honorable councillors of the Turian, Salarian, and Asari," there was a certain acid in his voice when he got to the more experienced councillors that he wished to used for choiced words. "may look down at me due to my experience as well as my species. However, there is reason that I was picked out of so many other young Krogan, I do not know what that reason is but do not let it go to waste by not letting me join this training program." Keng finished, satisfied with his piece and crossed his arms as he awaited for the Council's judgment. Once again, Illya spoke first.

"Young one, I admit that you have shown a lot of strength for someone of your age, but there is also recklessness within you. I hope this program will distill that out of you so we can expect many more great things from you." Illya said, her voice sounding much more stern than before when speaking to Keng.

"I'll be the first to admit that I am wary of a Krogan Spectre, but in these times beggars can't be choosers as humans say. I hope that this program can teach how to properly use your skills." Tevos spoke up, eyeing the young Krogan as if it were another animal to be trained. "I think this would be an interesting path for the Krogan."

"As for myself and Anderson," Kal'Jinor said "We have the utmost faith in you Keng, we look forward to any and all progress you are to make in the coming days."

"However, me and Councillor Valern both agree that this arrangement is a bit faulty, Krogan don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to keeping their recklessness in." Sparatus sighed regretfully with a slight shake of his head. "But it seems as though the two of use can't change their mind and therefore begrudginly agree that you should be allowed to join."

"Hmph...Thank you." Keng walked off to the side as Caron stepped up, her arms behind her back as she stood at attention as she spoke to the entire Council.

"Honored Councillors, thank you very much for considering me for this position. As you know, I know I am Caron Bilkas, Corporal of the 43rd Regiment, 2nd Platoon, 1st Squad. I feel no need to go over what I did on Palaven, seeing as you already know. What I did was for my people, but I will not hesitate to to do it again for another species. I believe this program would be valuable to not only myself, but to the other candidates, yourselves, and the species of Council Space as well." She spoke without pause or a break to breath as she stood as if being inspected by a military officer.

"Truly, Caron, you are apart of a standard that all young Turians should live up to." Sparatus spoke up first, the pride in his voice slightly hinting that he would only like those of the original council races to be apart of this program. "I have no doubt you will make an excellent addition to this group and it is unanimous that you are allowed to join."

"Agreed, none of us could see a reason to not allow you guys in." Anderson spoke up, clearly impressed with the way the group was handling itself. With that, caron turned away, a sliver of a smile on her face as Val walked up with an upbeat step.

"Hey there." She spoke with an unusually cheery tone considering the subject of the meeting. "As you know I am Val'Jinah nar Rannoch and I assume you already know of what I did on Rannoch. Please do not underestimate because of my cheerful disposition, I will take this program seriously and I can only hope you can take me seriously. I hope that past prejudices against my people will not affect your decision in allowing me to join." She was playing with her hands nervously by the end of words, apparently believing she may have said something that crossed the line.

"You are brighter than you first appeared Miss Jinah, I am both impressed and surprised." Councillor Valern said with an appraising look, as if measuring her worth. 'I can say that I will not judge you based on who you are as a species, that being said I believe you should be allowed in along with your own Councillor and the ones of the Human and Krogan."

"Once again, there is some disagreement among us, but we for this decision its a majority rules vote." Tevos voiced as she leaned forward against the table. "Me and Sparatus do not believe you have what it takes, but our other Councillors do, we can only hope you live up to their expectations. Congratulations on your acceptance."

"Ill do more than meet, Ill exceed!." She said with confidence and slight amazement as she ran back to the join the others, and like the beginning there was a brief and awkward pause. The remainder unsure of which should go first.

"You can go first." Jason said before noisily sipping his coffee, causing Avine to roll her eyes but comply with him as well.

"Thank you for this opportunity Councillors, unfortunately there isn't much I can say in terms of thanks and gratitude as the others took the words out of my mouth. All that I can do is let you pass your judgment now." She gave a small sigh of nervousness, looking down slightly to the floor as she awaited her words.

"Lift your head up young one, do not be nervous." Illya spoke in a rather maternal sounding voice, surprising quite a few people in the room "Once again, it is a unanimous decision to allow you to join, you will no doubt make an excellent addition to the spectres." And with a sigh of relief, Avine stepped back. Then she, along with a couple of the others realized who was left. Jason Martinez. The young man who was asleep a few minutes ago, the same young man with a tired look his eyes as if to say that he wanted to get this over with; who was also nonchalantly finishing off his coffee and donuts.

"We're doomed" Caron, Avine, and Keng thought to themselves simultaneously as the young human placed the mug aside and stepped forward.

"So...everyone else pretty much said all that I could say." He gave a small and silent yawn before continuing. "Just give me your judgement." There was a silent pause in place of the Council's words. never before had some who had before before them been so nonchalant, while Val'Jinah was surprisingly cheery, there was definitely some nervousness to her voice, but in Jason there was no hint of any of that, no confidence, no nervousness, no fear, nothing. Just a blank stare from a young human. Finally Anderson broke the silence with a cough before speaking.

"Well son, you certainly have done a lot of things that are worthy of Spectre status." Anderson spoke first, giving a soft patriarch like smile as he gave Jason an appraising look. "Like everyone here, you have served on the homeworld of your race. If I remember correctly you were in Chicago? Apart of some Militia right?"

"Yeah, I was apart of your escort detail just before you were sent off to Vancouver." Jason said plainly as he stared ahead with dead eyes.

"The report says that you formed the Militia, is that true?" Tevos asked with mild curiosity.

"Correct, although the Alliance did not recognize us as an official part of their military they did however recognized me as a Captain whenever I met with them however when I formerly joined them after the war I was only allowed rank of 1st Lieutenant." He responded with the same tone as was when Sparatus began reading directly off Jason's dossier.

"Impressive nonetheless considering your age. Leader of a Militia composed of 400 troops (est.) Participated in the defense of several refugee bases. Exceptional biotics; was a prime candidate for Grissom Academy before Reaper War. After Reaper War, was allowed to join the Alliance Military with the rank of Lt. Impressive, and those aren't even the all of your highlights, however they are the most notable, not bad for a young human." He was utterly impressed with the details of Jason's 'career' "You are definitely a favorite of mine, I believe that we can expect a lot from you."

"Agreed." Valern spoke up as with he gave Jason an appraising look, what made this one different was that he had a sliver of a smile on his features. "You've that you are a capable combatant, an excellent tactician, and capable of performing stealth based operations. Certainly someone we want in the spectres let alone in training program for one.

"Indeed, which is why we are granting you the leadership position in the group." Tevos spoke as she motioned to the other recruits, who were trying so hard to hide their looks of shock. "While some of your fellow recruits showed that they are capable leaders, none are more capable than you. Leading 400 hundred men and women is no easy feat and yet you were able to, with 73% of your operations successful. that is no small feat considering almost none of them had military training prior to being under your leadership. While Garrus Vakarian will be in charge of the group, you will be the leader on field missions unless another spectre is on the ground. Rest assured we will give others leadership opportunities but for now, you are in charge of them."

"Ill try to live up to your expectations, I hope I can meet or exceed them." With that he stepped back and Anderson stood up with a small, but proud smile in his face as he spoke.

"Congratulations, your group is now approved, but first some ground rules we have to go over. Valern, if you will?"

"Although you are in training to become spectres, that does not mean you have the powers of one. Your actions can get you reprimands from not only the council but your own government as , not only do you report to us, but to the other instructors as who will oversee your training. For not though take this time to get to know each other, also you will be staying within the Alliance Second Fleet under Admiral Shepard." At this, the distinguished admiral took over.

"Your living arrangments have all been arranged, you will all be staying on the newest "Normandy' Class starship, the SSV Titan, the ladies will be sharing a room as well as the men. Please follow me so I can lead you to your new quarters." The meeting now over, the recruits quickly followed after Shepard, Val and Jondem were particularly excited due them never seeing a stealth class starship and wanting to learn how it worked firsthand. They walked in silence until Caron spoke up

"Sir, where do you stay?" She asked with mild curiosity, her reason for the question was to see if Shepard, along with Vakarian would be watching over them during their stay in the Titan.

"I still live in the SSV Normandy, along with my wife Tali." He answered politely as he continued to look straight ahead, Caron was about to ask another question until Val spoke up.

"Admiral Zorah, how is she doing? I heard she is with child, how is that possible?" She was bouncing on her toes in anticipation of the answer, it caused the admiral to give her an amused smile before answering.

"I'm sure you all know of Mordin Solus, correct?" Shepard asked, once agian looking straight forward as he lead them the the halls of the SSV London

"STG Agent who worked with you on the Collector Assignment and also help with curing the genophage correct?" Keng was the one who answered, surprising everyone including Shepard.

"Yeah, but I was under the impression Wrex wanted to keep that information a secret until the Krogan were ready?" Shepard questioned with mild curiosity and intrigue.

"Urdnot Bakara and Wrex deemed it necessary for me to know the truth if I was to join this program, saying something about that I shouldn't bear any ill will the the other species. I didn't particularly cared for the info, I get along well enough with you aliens. Anyway, why is your Quarian pregnant with by a Human? I thought it was impossible." Keng said, trying to get the subject back on track.

"Ah of course, sorry about that. Anyway Mordin developed some type of procedure in his spare time, to make cross species breeding possible. After he died, his work was passed onto Maelon, one of his former students, to finish and perfect the final product. I don't know the specifics, maybe Mr. Talom can tell you?"

"I can't go into that much detail but I can tell you that the procedure is a simple surgery, along with a serum, in the Subject's womb, making it possible to be impregnated by an alien species." Jondem explained, his tone indicated that he had been wanting to do this for quite awhile. "Although the child won't come out as a mix, Mordin found that would be impossible, instead when two people of a different race interact, he made it so that only the traits from one parent would appear. So say a Turian and a Quarian were to have a child, the surgery and the serum would randomly pick the characteristics of one parent and the child would come out as the species of said parent."

"How does this not hurt the child? It sounds extremely risky/" Avine asked as the topic had piqued the interest of many Asari since now any species could mate and have a child with another species.

"Mordin did two sets of experiments for this, one where he crossed two different species of a different animal group on the same planet, conducting three trials. Most were successful and those that weren't didn't bought any hard to the fetus although it did have a hard time assimilating with one group of animals. Then again with two species of two different planets, same amount of trials and got the same success rate as before." Jondem explained as they reached the port connecting the SSV London and the SSV Titan. "Maelon was to see if he could get the success rate up after Professor Solus' passing, and he did and a few standard months later the treatment is now readily available to the public, although the procedure has no effect on Krogan, Asari, Elcor, Hanar, and Salarians due to different methods of reproduction. A Human/ Turian couple have already reported to have success and are now raising a healthy human girl. Some side effects of the serum and experiments for the baby are minor and are only affect the appearance. In the Human/Turian child's case, she has avian like eyes similar to her father."

"Thats amazing, sounds as though the child will come out as the same species as the mother correct?" Jason said, surprising most in the group as he had appeared disinterested only a few moments ago.

"You're a correct, although it is possible for the child to develop into the fathers species it is not as likely." Jondem stated, slightly impressed at the humans observation.

"So Shepard do you know the species and gender?" Val asked, the young Quarian clearly excited at the topic at hand as she appeared to bouncing on her her toes as the doors to the SSV Titan opened. Revealing a CIC similar to the SR2-Normandy with a larger Galaxy map and more crew on deck. It was built like any other Stealth Class ship but with a few differences, while most were built for hit and run tactics. The SSV Titan was built for combat, with stronger plating and double the firepower to back it up.

"Tali chose to keep to be surprised and I learned not to argue with a pregnant Quarian." Shepard said with a light smile as he led them to the elevator and taking them down to the Crews Quarters Deck.

"Commander, who is in charge of the ship?" Caron asked, finally having a chance to ask her question after being interrupted and listening on a whole conversation of Cross-Species relationships. As if on cue the elevator doors opened to reveal Kahlee Sanders, or Kahlee Anderson as she now went by.

"Here she is Ms. Bilkas. Captain Kahlee Anderson." The two saluted one another before Shepard continued. "The Titan is her ship, so respect her and follow any rules she has and you won't have any trouble." He filed them out of the elevator and allowed Kahlee a chance to speak.

"Thank you Admiral." The blonde Captain cleared her throat before speaking. "As you all know. you will be staying here for the remainder of your training program unless it is deemed you are to be moved elsewhere. SSV Titan will take you to your future missions and extract you as well so we won't always be traveling with the 2nd Fleet. I have two simple rules, no fighting and no illegal activities, I don't think I'm asking too much now am I?"

"No ma'am." The young men and women responded simultaneously.

"Good, now follow me to your quarters, your things have already been prepared." She simply led down the hall to the right where two doors stood side by side, girls left, boys right. Ill leave to your own devices for now and Ill inform you via intercom when your first training session is. Also whoever is in charge has to fill out a supply list, I don't know if any of you have your own weapons, if not we'll need to order you some."

With that she left and the recruits entered their respective rooms, reflecting on the days events as the door closed behind them.

NOTES

Okay, so 2nd chapter is done and over with, hope you guys like it so far, if so please leave a constructive review.

The cross species breeding thing is something I personally wanted to do for quite awhile now and if there are things that I should revise please let me know in either the reviews or PM me

yes I had Anderson married Sanders for one simple reason, they need love as well . all for now and ill see you guys next chapter.


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